Please help me with apisto choices.

[DavidT]

I have just been to the LFS and have the following available to choose from;

a. borelli
a. cacautoides "Orange Flash"
a. cacautoides " Triple Red"
a. agassizii "Red"
a. macmasteri
a. viejita
a. trifasciata
a.nijsseni

My water parameters are ph7.6, GH10, KH8. The tank is well planted 32" long and stocked with 8 pencilfish, 3 corys and 1 ancistrus. I am hoping for one species of 1 male 2 or 3 females. I also would like to add a second cichlid species, any ideas welcome.

Thanks for any advice.

David

 

[Peter Lovett1]

Are you going to get an RO unit if so then any of the fish on the list will be fine as a trio.

If not then i would go for either the a. borelli or a. cacautoides you may even be able to have two males and 3 female a. borelli.

good luck and let me know what you choose.

 

[hot]

Your ph seems i bit on the high side for most of the apisto's you mentioned. Except maybe the Caca's, which tend to do ok in higher ph values, up to 7.5. The rest would perfer a much lower ph, especially the viejita approx5.5-6. My two cents.

 

[cootwarm]

Hi David,

I agree with Peter. Cacs and borellii would do fine in your tap water. Actually, I've read about cacatuoides having health problems if the pH is too low. Myself, I keep my viejita, trifasciata, and macmasteri at pH 4.5. I didn't think they require it that low, but I can get 4.5 pH consistantly by treating with peat moss.

Your tap water isn't very hard so peat moss would probably be very effective at lowering your pH and further lowering your hardness. My tap water is pH7.6; GH8; and KH5, after treating with peat moss for 4 or 5 days my pH is 4.5; GH4 and KH2. Peatwater is much better than chemical treatments. I'll need RO water to lower the hardness any further.

Michael

 

[DavidT]

Thanks for the replies.

I have decided to get an RO system, I just need to make up my mind whether to go for an aquarium 3 stage system or a domestic 5 stage system.

In the meantime though I want to go for the borelli hopefully 2 males and 3 females. I think they will be ok in my tank as it is, the water parameters (taken last night) are now ph 7.6, gh 7.8 and kh 7.3. What should I look for that may help differentiating the sexes, the LFS borelli are about 1" in length.

David

 

[cootwarm]

Hi David,

Your water is fine as is for borellii (also cacs).

Sometimes borellii are easy to sex but sometimes they can be difficult. Often sub-ordinant males will take on some female appearance. With young adults it's usually a safe bet that the ones with no markings at all on the fins are male. Pick out ones with distinct black markings on the ventral & dorsal fins for females. If a female is ready to spawn, she might be a nice yellow body color.

When you use RO water, you still might need peat water to lower the pH, but because there is no hardness it is much more effective. A little peat water should go a long way.

I've read of people using CO2 to lower pH but it's complicated and there is a risk of pH spikes and crashes. Stay away from chemicals to adjust your pH as I've read that they increase the hardness or conductivity or something like that.

Michael

 

[DavidT]

Today I went to the LFS and bought 1 male and hopefully 2 female borelli.

Can anyone tell me what different types of borelli there are, I've heard of "opal" and "yellow head" varieties from this site.

I also bought 6 rummy nosed tetra's.

Thanks

David

 

[Mike Wise]

David,

A. borellii is a highly polychromatic species. Staeck reports that in his survey of collecting sites, specimens from the northern part of its range tend to have more yellow than those in the southern part, but this is not a hard and fast rule. All of the color forms are commonly collected together. A. borellii Opal was originally a domestic form that was produced from the most colorful specimens available. It had red face markings on a blue & green scaled body with blue fins. It was developed years ago by former East German hobbyists. I don't know if this strain still exists. Now the fish that are called Opal are the blue borellii with red face markings.

 

[ervis]

Borellii pictures

Hi, I'm not sure how much color yours are showing, but these are pictures of my Borellii. I do belive they are "yellow face". The alpha male is really fancy and beautifull. The second male, now in a tank separate from the alpha, is starting to show the same finnage and body color.

steve
http://www.geocities.com/erviservy/Borellii_Breeding.html

http://www.geocities.com/erviservy/Fish_Pictures.html